A Philadelphia jury has delivered a sharp rebuke to Johnson & Johnson, handing down a $250,000 verdict Friday in a lawsuit brought by the family of a woman who alleged the company’s once-iconic talcum powder contributed to her fatal ovarian cancer.
The decision came after a three-week trial and three-and-a-half days of deliberations in the courtroom of Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Sean Kennedy. Closing arguments wrapped Feb. 10, with the plaintiff’s attorney urging jurors to “send a message” to the health care giant.
First Plaintiffs’ Victory in Years
The verdict — $50,000 in compensatory damages and $200,000 in punitive damages — marks the first plaintiffs’ win in Philadelphia’s sprawling talc mass tort, which encompasses roughly 175 cases. It follows a 2021 defense verdict in the city’s first talc trial favoring Johnson & Johnson.
The nearly five-year pause between trials stemmed from a court-ordered stay while litigation addressed bankruptcy proceedings tied to Johnson & Johnson’s spun-off talc unit — a procedural detour that froze momentum in the local docket.
Compared with towering awards handed down elsewhere, Friday’s verdict is modest. In December, juries in Baltimore and Los Angeles delivered judgments of $1.5 billion and $40 million, respectively, to talc plaintiffs. In October, a California court issued a staggering $966 million judgment in another talc case. Against that backdrop, Philadelphia’s award may look small — but symbolically, it carries weight.
